International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) e-ISSN: 2395-0056

Volume: 08 Issue: 06 | June 2021 www.irjet.net p-ISSN: 2395-0072

IoT Based Automated Hydroponic System

Mayuri Deokar1, Vignesh Iyer1, Siddhant Badgujar1, Hrishikesh Yadav1, Jadhav Venkat2
1Student, Electronics Engineering B.E., Datta Meghe College of Engineering, Affiliated to University of Mumbai
2Asst. Professor, Dept. of Electronics Engineering, Datta Meghe College of Engineering, Navi Mumbai, India
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Abstract - Hydroponics is a form of gardening that uses
no soil, but instead grows plants in a solution of water and
nutrients. A hydroponic system can grow plants and
vegetables faster and year-round with an efficient use of
resources. Plants grown this way usually yield more, require
less space, and conserve soil and water. This system is an
ideal solution if you are an apartment dweller who does not
have an outdoor gardening plot. Throughout the growing
process, one needs to control several factors such as lighting,
water quality, air circulation, and more. Here we use Deep
water culture (DWC) which is a hydroponic method of plant
production by means of suspending the plant roots in a
solution of nutrient-rich, oxygenated water. This method
uses floating rafts to suspend plant roots into a pond of
water often 8–12 inches deep. Since there is a relatively Figure - 1: Physical Structure
large reservoir of nutrient rich water for each plant, there is
buffering for pH, EC, and temperature, which means these The purpose of this project is to interface an electronic
elements of the system won’t fluctuate undesirably. For circuit of sensors and actuators to a hydroponic system in
oxygenation of the hydroponic solution, an airstone is order to develop an IoT based automated hydroponic
added. This air stone is then connected to an airline that system for remote monitoring and control.
runs to an air pump. Sunlight is usually required for the
The block diagram illustrates the interaction between all
growth of the plants but in hydroponics, it is supplemented
the sensors, actuators and the respective microcontrollers
with artificial lighting. The lighting has to be according to
or SoC (System-on-Chip) involved in the hardware.
the plant’s type and requirement.

Key Words: Hydroponics, Deep Water Culture, Internet

of Things, Android, Google Firebase Realtime
Database, Arduino, WiFi Module

1.INTRODUCTION

Since hydroponics takes much less water to grow produce,

it could be possible in the future for providers in harsh
environments with little accessible water to grow their
own food. In recent decades, NASA has done extensive
hydroponic research developing a Martian environment
using LED lighting to grow in a different color spectrum
with much less heat. They believe hydroponics will create Chart - 1: Block Diagram
advances within space travel as a bioregenerative life
support system. The system flow chart explains the complete process of
Hydroponic Farming can be a better alternative to the automation carried out within the concerned
traditional farming along with options like automation of hydroponic system. The flow chart and block diagram
monitoring and controlling the environment through grow presented here have the potential to add customized
lights and heaters as required by the plant. functions according to various hydroponic systems other
than DWC hydroponic systems like Nutrient Film
Technique (NFT) and even Aeroponics.

© 2021, IRJET | Impact Factor value: 7.529 | ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal | Page 1896
 International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) e-ISSN: 2395-0056
Volume: 08 Issue: 06 | June 2021 www.irjet.net p-ISSN: 2395-0072

The only actuator, a grow light LED bulb is switched to an

AC circuit using a 5V relay to safely isolate it from the DC
circuit. The AC circuit of the bulb is connected across the
normally open and common pin while normally closed is
left open (not connected). A free-wheeling diode is
connected in parallel to the relay coil which prevents
damage to the transistor from voltage spike when the coil
is deactivated. This transistor is used as a switch with the
base connected to the digital output pin used to control
the relay. Thus, control is established and this is done
remotely using the Android application.
4. METHODOLOGY
Initially, the seeds are grown in soil to develop small
saplings which are then transferred into net pots where
their roots are supported with inert media and exposed to
the nutrient-rich oxygenated water solution.

Chart - 1: System Flow Chart

2. SENSOR PARAMETERS MEASURED

Figure - 3: Net Pots Assembly
The sensors being used here to monitor surrounding air
The plants cultivated in the container having net pots are
parameters along with the water quality essential for plant
growth are as follows: Digital humidity and temperature fruiting citrus lemon plants which required parameters in
sensor DHT-11 which provides temperature in degrees ranges as follows:
celsius and humidity in percentage. Light dependent For the surrounding ambient temperature, the plants
resistor LDR to calculate the luminous flux in lux which is require 15°C to 21°C.
directly related to luminous intensity in lumens. pH sensor
Similarly,
indicates the acidity or alkalinity of water-based solutions.
The EC sensor measures the electrical conductivity in a Humidity: 10% - 50%
solution to monitor the amount of nutrients, salts or
White Light of 300 - 800 lumens
impurities in the water in mSiemen/cm. Here, Seeed
Studio Grove pH Sensor Kit was used to measure the pH of pH: 5.5 - 6.5
the nutrient-rich solution whereas the EC sensor was built
EC: 1.0 - 1.6 mSeimen/cm
using a simple type C plug and waterproof temperature
sensor DS18B20 for temperature compensation. Thus, the thresholds were set according to these plant
requirements using the Android Application - Rio which
3. ACTUATOR CONTROLLED
we built with the Android Studio IDE. These thresholds are
defined in the form of a range with an upper limit and a
So far, sensors being used and their working principle
lower limit. When the sensor data deviates from this
have been explained. Now let’s move on further to the
threshold range and if notifications are enabled, the drop
actuator being controlled in this project. This actuator is a
or increase of the respective parameter is notified, even
simple LED bulb of wattage 5W and around 500 lumen
after killing the app provided the android device is
with white light.
connected to an internet network. This function will be

© 2021, IRJET | Impact Factor value: 7.529 | ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal | Page 1897
 International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) e-ISSN: 2395-0056
Volume: 08 Issue: 06 | June 2021 www.irjet.net p-ISSN: 2395-0072

demonstrated further in this paper presentation. interfaced with a 4 pin JST cable and connector which also
has 4 pins similar to DHT11. Similarly, the DS1820
5. GOOGLE FIREBASE waterproof temperature sensor has 3 wires of VDD, GND
and DQ (Data from a one-wire bus) and requires a
Firebase is a platform developed by Google for creating
resistance of 4.7kΩ between data DQ and VDD. The type C
mobile and web applications. There are many services
2-pin plug needs a 500Ω resistance to one terminal
provided by Firebase like Cloud Firestore, Realtime
through 5V voltage but we used 1kΩ instead as it renders
Database, Crash Analytics Authentication and much more.
a smaller range for the electrical conductivity and is
The Firebase Realtime Database is a cloud-hosted
enough for hydroponics. This terminal takes in the voltage
database. Data is stored as JSON (JavaScript Object
whereas the other terminal is grounded. The pH and EC is
Notation) and synchronized in realtime to every
taken care of by the ArduinoUNO.
connected client. When we build cross-platform apps with
iOS, Android, and JavaScript SDKs (Software Development
Kit), all the clients share one Realtime Database instance
and automatically receive updates with the newest data.
Here, Android SDK is used for developing the Android
Application named Rio along with connecting NodeMCU to
the Google Firebase Realtime Database using
FirebaseESP8266.h library.

Figure - 5: Soldered PCB

So far, the circuit design has been discussed, now let’s

move on to the data transfer. Transfer and reception take
Figure - 4: IoT Based System
place through the SoftwareSerial.h library for which digital
pins of both the boards are connected with the grounds
So, sensor data is collected, processed and pushed into the
made common.
realtime database by the NodeMCU in the form of key-
value pairs of JSON in respective nodes over a WiFi Just like JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) was used for
network. Similarly, when the control node in the database pushing key-value pairs into the Google Firebase Realtime
is enabled through the Android Application Rio, the grow Database, we use the same concept to transfer pH and EC
light connected through a 5V relay is switched on after a data from ArduinoUNO to NodeMCU using ArduinoJSON.h
small considerable delay to provide light over the plants library. There are two entities related to it: Static and
and subsequently switched off once the control node is Dynamic JSON Document. We use a static JSON document
disabled through the app remotely. Thus, we have a fully as it can be recreated each time in a loop when there is a
functional smart hydroponic system to grow crops at ease new set of data. So, it has to be serialized from
and convenience. ArduinoUNO through software serial and it gets
6. CIRCUIT DESIGN deserialized at NodeMCU. We got these documents printed
on the serial monitor using JSON pretty print.
The circuit is designed for interfacing the required
hardware. As mentioned before the hardware includes the
various sensors for monitoring pH, EC and liquid
temperature of the water-nutrient solution by the Arduino
UNO whereas the NodeMCU takes care of luminous
intensity, temperature and humidity of the surrounding
air. We also control the LED bulb switching with NodeMCU
with a 5V relay which isolates the AC circuit from the DC
circuit. The DHT-11 has 4 terminals namely VCC, GND,
DATA and NC (not connected). The LDR circuit is a simple
voltage divider with 10kΩ. The pH Sensor board is

© 2021, IRJET | Impact Factor value: 7.529 | ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal | Page 1898
 International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) e-ISSN: 2395-0056
Volume: 08 Issue: 06 | June 2021 www.irjet.net p-ISSN: 2395-0072

grow light LED bulb with values “enable” or “disable” until

the switch status in the app is changed.

Figure - 6: Actual Hydroponic System

7. PHYSICAL SET-UP WORKING Figure - 7: Google Firebase Realtime Database

The plants are transferred into net pots where their roots The application’s UI allows the values of various
are supported with inert media and exposed to the parameters being measured to be monitored in real-time
nutrient-rich oxygenated water solution which is flushed provided the android device is connected to the internet.
through two pipes to pump and drain water with the help The application also provides notifications for indicating
of a motor. An airstone is placed in the reservoir and is threshold deviation by enabling the “get notified” switch.
used to oxygenate the water solution. There is an
electronic soldered circuit interfaced with the Android
App Rio as well as the Serial Monitor displaying the
readings. Here, we carry out pH and EC monitoring after
interfacing the circuit with the main setup while the
electrodes are immersed in the solution of the water
reservoir whereas readings are displayed on the serial
monitor when connected through the USB cable to a
computer using Arduino IDE. Soon after the interfacing of
the circuit with the main physical system, it was observed
that there is considerable delay between enabling the
switch, the bulb turning on and the LED status to change
into ON state. However, this delay does not affect the Figure - 8: App UI
reliability of the system.
We have three functions in the menu and one of them is to
set thresholds for temperature, humidity and luminous
8. INTEGRATED SOFTWARE OPERATION intensity. Thresholds can be defined as a range with an
upper limit and a lower limit. When there is no input to
After the circuit has been interfaced with the actual any field or the lower limit exceeds the upper limit, we get
physical hydroponic set-up, the software integrated with errors. Once proper values are set, we now get a
the hardware plays a major role in the complete functional notification when there is a drop or the sensor value
working and success of the project. This project is IoT exceeds the range.
based as it includes connecting the hardware to an
existing WiFi network and communicating with a cloud The app also shows the current threshold and provides a
based realtime database to monitor and control various default set of values to be set at one click and indicates the
parameters in our system. same once the button is clicked. If we check the current
threshold, we see it is set to default.
In the Realtime Database of the Google Firebase, the red
highlight indicates that the data is being deleted. Similarly,
yellow resembles change in data and the green highlight
shows that this is new data created, all done in real-time.
There is no change in the “cont” key used to control the

© 2021, IRJET | Impact Factor value: 7.529 | ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal | Page 1899
 International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) e-ISSN: 2395-0056
Volume: 08 Issue: 06 | June 2021 www.irjet.net p-ISSN: 2395-0072

cultivation and the system can help adjust and control

important environmental factors that affect plant growth
with notifications which makes the process more
convenient and easier.

REFERENCES

[1] AI in Hydroponics: The Future Of Smart Farming

March 1, 2021 by Anju Nambiar
https://analyticsindiamag.com/ai-in-hydroponics-the-
future-of-smart-farming/
[2] Design a Lux Meter Using a Light Dependent Resistor
December 13, 2015 by David Williams
https://www.allaboutcircuits.com/projects/design-a-
luxmeter-using-a-light-dependent-resistor/
[3] A review on Seeed Studio pH and EC Sensor Kits
Figure - 9: App Functions
July 2, 2020
https://www.e-tinkers.com/2020/07/a-review-on-seeed-
studio-ph-and-ec-sensor-kits-part-1/
[4] Three Dollar EC - PPM Meter [Arduino]
April 9, 2015 by Michael Ratcliffe
https://hackaday.io/project/7008-fly-wars-a-hackers-
solution-to-world-hunger/log/24646-three-dollar-ec-
ppm-meter-arduino

Figure - 10: Threshold Settings

9. CONCLUSIONS

The conclusion drawn from this project is that it is not

optimal as both the microcontroller ATmega328P on
ArduinoUNO as well as ESP8266 SoC on NodeMCU are
used in the circuit. We built this project with all the
possible resources available during this ongoing pandemic
and it has a great potential to be made more optimum.
There are many ways of optimizing the project, some of
them are:

(1) Using an external ADC with NodeMCU for more

analog inputs
(2) Using ESP8266 - 01 WiFi Module with Arduino
UNO for WiFi Connectivity:

Therefore, the automated hydroponics system based on

android application and IoT was developed to facilitate the

© 2021, IRJET | Impact Factor value: 7.529 | ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal | Page 1900